They feel betrayed and ignored — including in BC and Canada.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his federal Liberals are largely regarded to be running on fumes, particularly in the aftermath of the stunning Liberal byelection loss in Toronto-St. Paul’s. The upset is a vivid signal that Canadians are ready for change.
Four years ago, Canada crafted a plan to capitalize on a global hydrogen market the government expected to be worth up to $11.7 trillion by mid-century. Billions of dollars of public money has been provided to seize the country’s share of the pie.
But there’s a problem: the global market is shrinking before their eyes.
Natural Resources Canada tapped a fossil fuel lobby group to help provide recommendations on expanding the nascent hydrogen sector, documents obtained by Canada’s National Observer reveal.
When BC first introduced a carbon tax in 2008 the point was to apply it to all emissions causing climate change, but start at a low rate and increase it over time. Yet, as the carbon tax has increased for households at the gas pump and to heat homes, large industrial players—including the oil and gas industry that is causing climate change—have steadily evaded their carbon tax.
The rise of “natural gas” as a form of reconciliation is a strategy of the fossil fuel industry to maintain their grip on our energy systems and profit off Indigenous lands.
Sitting alongside Indigenous leaders with a Canadian flag draped behind him, Pierre Poilievre began his announcement.
“For hundreds of years, First Nations have suffered under a broken system that gives power over their lives to a far away government in Ottawa that decides for them,” he said.
B.C. Attorney General Niki Sharma has asked a provincial watchdog to look into a series of bold claims about how an executive at a Canadian oil and gas giant — and former BC NDP political staffer — claimed the company had leveraged political connections to persuade the provincial government to significantly weaken its environmental policies.